


Unexpectedly

by nightbaron079



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-06 20:58:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1872237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightbaron079/pseuds/nightbaron079
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He tried to be alone but he got a little distracted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpectedly

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a Tweetfic... And it got a little bit NSFW in my head so I will try to remedy that here. It's an AU wherein Voldemort died before Harry was even born so he isn't out to bother anyone. All these teenagers have to worry about are their lives. And each other, of course.

Quidditch practice has ended, and instead of keeping his broom in the locker with all the others he decided to fly around for a bit. The night air was nice, and the almost full moon was bright in the cloudless sky. He floats around leisurely, seeing threstrals flying in the distance. He steers clear of the Forbidden Forest, and flies over the turrets of the castle. Hermione would be livid when he gets back, but he couldn't exactly tell her that she was the reason why he was staying away. Avoiding the common room where she usually stays when the library kicks her out was not exactly working out. As a result, his grades have been suffering without her constant nagging for him to do his homework (and her helpful hints when he gets stuck in a question).

She has been hinting on how he was avoiding her but he brushes it off with an awkward laugh. She would frown or pout but let it slide, knowing how he loathed being pressed to tell things when he wasn't ready. Ron would watch these exchanges silently, usually eating as an excuse to not use his mouth to talk to his best friend. They still stayed together, Hermione still on top of both their schedules. But since she started going out with Ron, he finds it awkward to be in their presence.

Hermione was the same, still as sweet and caring as ever. But every time the three of them are together, Ron had been acting... hostile.

  
He was fiercely protective of Hermione, but Harry doesn't understand why this protectiveness extended to him. Ron would also make it a point of snogging Hermione whenever Harry was in visible range. This happens so much that Harry had to make sure he wasn't holding anything when he's near them. Two quills had already perished in all of this as he silently fumes in his seat, wondering why he was even angry in the first place. They were _together_. They were a _couple_. It's natural that they kiss.

  
But he still feels out of sorts about everything.

  
He was confused why he feels this way, but one smile from Hermione and his frazzled nerves would be soothed, and it was okay.

But it's been very tense to be around them when they were fighting. Hermione would often run to him, crying but refusing to tell him why they were at each other's throats. Ron was silent, gloomy, refusing to talk to him more than ever. Their friendship was getting weaker and he hated it. But the sight of Hermione's tears were too painful that he can't help but go to her first.

  
He shakes his head. The point of him flying alone was to sort out his thoughts. But he kept thinking about Ron and Hermione.

He starts when he feels a chill pass through his body. Looking around, he realized that he had floated up too high again and passed through a cloud. Looking down, he finds himself above the Astronomy Tower. He was about to fly away when he notices something.

  
There were two people on the Astronomy Tower. He didn't want to interfere, but their voices carried and he realized he knew who they were.

The mass of brown curls and the head of red hair.

"Why don't you like to?"

"I'm not yet ready! And seriously, here?"

"Don't you love me? Why won't you say that you love me?"

"That's not the point!"

"IT'S EXACTLY THE POINT!" Ron roars out. Hermione visibly flinches, and it took all of Harry's self control to keep himself from flying the Firebolt down to them and punch Ron in the face. Gripping the broomstick tightly in his suddenly cold hands, he watches as Ron began pacing back and forth, stopping and planting himself right in front of Hermione.

"Is it him?"

"What?"

"You know who I'm talking about."

"What? No!"

"Don't deny it! I see the way you look at him!"

"How do I look at him?"

  
"Like you love him!"

Silence.

 

Harry found that he was holding his breath. Ron was staring at Hermione. Hermione was staring back.

"You're not even going to try and deny it?" Ron asked. His voice was shaking.

 

Harry swooped closer, hiding behind one of the turrets. He saw Hermione biting her lip, finding himself hanging on to every word she was saying.

"I love you Ron. I love Harry too. I love the both of you, but in different ways. But I'm with _you_. Can't you trust me?"

She cradles his cheek, and Harry feels his hands numb on his broomstick, the chilly air getting to him. He saw Ron's expression soften for a moment before his eyes frosted over, his mouth set into a thin, hard line.

"I trust you Hermione. I trust you more than I ever trusted anyone else."

  
He steps back, letting Hermione's hand fall limply to her side.

  
"...I just don't know if I could trust myself to making you like me as much as I like you. If I could keep that."

  
She opens her mouth to argue--she was Hermione after all--but he just shakes his head sadly.

"No, Hermione. Don't make this harder than it already is. I know you don't want to hurt me. And I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt you too."

  
Hermione was biting her lip again.

  
"Then why are you doing this, Ron?"

"I don't want you to keep choosing things just because you think it's right. You don't always have to get a perfect score." He smiles, then reaches out to ruffle her hair. "Sometimes, you have to fail too. Take it from me, I know."

She looks down and sniffs. Ron and Harry panic.

  
"Oh no, don't cry, please," Ron said, patting at his robes for a handkerchief. She looks up and gives Ron a watery smile.

  
"I'll be fine. Of course I have to cry! I just got my heart broken," she said, managing a small laugh.

"You are such a girl," Ron mumbled. Always trying to make things funnier, lighter. She smiled.

  
"Glad you finally noticed."

  
Both of them were silent. Then Ron reaches out his hand.

  
"Friends?"

  
She stares at his hand and tilts her head.

  
"I think I deserve better than that. I mean, we did snog a lot," she said matter-of-factly. Ron blushed, as red as his hair, as Hermione opened her arms. "Hug?"

  
Ron laughs softly and takes Hermione into his arms. Hermione buries her face into Ron's robes, and Ron kissed the top of her head and smelled her hair.

  
"I love you," Ron whispered.

  
"I love you too..." Hermione said, then laughed, the sound muffled by Ron's chest. "We're idiots."

  
"Nah, I'm the idiot for letting you go... Though okay, you're an idiot too," he says. He pulls away and holds Hermione by the shoulders. "The two of you should get a clue. You're supposed to be smarter than I am!"

  
She rubs at her eyes but does not answer, and Ron sighs.

"I should apologize for provoking him... And you... This was bound to happen, anyway." He steps back and weakly gestures at the door back to the castle.

  
"I'll be going back to bed... It's cold out here, you should go to sleep too..."

  
She smiles but shakes her head. "I'll stay here with my feelings  for a bit." He hesitates by the doorway, unsure what to say.

"Well... See you tomorrow?"

  
A nod from her. "See you tomorrow."

 

Ron leaves the Astronomy tower, and Hermione leans on the wall of the tower, looking out at the clear night sky. Harry clutched at a roof tile as he cranes his neck to look at her, sighing audibly.

 

"Harry?"

He starts, bumping into the roof of the turret he was hiding behind. Sheepishly, he peeks his head out from his hiding place and flies to where she was, landing softly on the stone floor. Leaning his broom against the door, he joins Hermione on the wall. Nobody talked, the both of them lapsing into the comfortable silence they always had.

  
"...sorry I heard you.." he mumbled, blushing in embarrassment.

"It's alright. You'll find out that we broke up anyway," she said, in so casual a tone that he wondered if she was pulling his leg until he realized she was being completely serious.

"... I thought it was just one of your huge rows..." he said, not knowing anything better to say. She shivers beside him and Harry looks at her, just in time to see her quickly wiping at a tear. Swallowing the lump that was forming in his throat, he unwraps his scarf from his neck and wrapped it around Hermione's neck and covering the bottom of her face before looking back out at the night sky, tracing constellations he remembers from his lessons. Venus was shining in the distance, the brightest object in the sky next to the moon.

"Can I borrow your shoulder?" she asks thickly through his scarf. Harry stills, then nods. A heartbeat, and then he feels her head leaning on his back where his shoulder was, her body shaking with silent sobs. He bears the tremors of her tears without a word, and she cries into his scarf for a long time.

 

It was a long time before her tears would stop falling. She would stand next to Harry and lean her head on her shoulder, and he would wrap his arm around her shoulders. It was a long time before both of them would speak. It was an even longer time before they would talk about how they feel.

 

 

But now, they stood together on the top of the highest tower on Hogwarts, the top of their world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Together, they watched the sun rise.

"We're not supposed to be here..." Harry whispered, voice thick from lack of sleep... And feelings unsaid.

  
"I'm Head Girl. I'm allowed here. I was on patrol. What do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Potter?" she said, voice thick from crying... And maybe something else too. He shrugs.

  
"I'm Quidditch Captain. Almost the same thing."

  
They laugh, and he rubs her arm to keep her warm.

  
"Thank you."

  
He felt her squeeze his hand afterwards, and he grasps it back, warm hands in the cold morning.

  
"Always welcome."

 

_Baby steps._


End file.
